Amplifying SeaSoil: Demonstrating seaweed fertilisation effects on perennial ley.
SeaSoilDemo_DISS
The project “Amplifying SeaSoil: Demonstrating seaweed fertilisation effects on perennial ley” (SeaSoilDemo) will be carrried out by the Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture (NORSØK) in collaboration with The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and SeaSoil industry partners from Norway and Ireland. The industry partners have delivered seaweed materials which will be tested in field at NORSØK (Tingvoll, NW Norway) during the growing season of 2023. In a demonstration trial (one set of experimental plots, without replicates), the effect of various seaweed materials will be studied, when they are applied to a 1st year perennial grass-clover ley. With the amplification funding, this demo-trial can be expanded by a thorough and regular visual documentation (photo + video), and industry partners and SeaSoil researchers from Norway, Denmark, Estonia and Croatia can be included in a close communication about the effects, and possible explanations of the observed plant growth.
NORSØK will prepare all documents and files required for such communication. A final video will be produced (by NORSØK) where SeaSoil researchers and industry partners comment on the products and the output of their application in field. This will be a valuable dissemination product for the main project (SeaSoil), and the main project will provide a good environment for creating interest for this video among various relevant stakeholders. For this, the SeaSoil multiactor platform will be useful. In the main project (SeaSoil), funding is provided for spreading the materials in field and recording the growth of ley with two harvests, and analysing the concentrations of minerals in the plant material (at NMBU). However, there is no funding for a thorough visual documentation of the field work and the growth effects, conduct the described requested communication, and editing a final dissemination video.